About motherhood - the good, the bad, the best.
Here are a few things I know - we are all doing the best we can, none of us know exactly what we are doing and we are not in this alone.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Brightening up others day for Christmas

Christmas is over and back to work. Another long weekend starts this weekend. I want to share some of our Christmas - mostly to document it for me.

Friday - We visited Charlie's grandparents at their nursing home. His grandma has severe dementia and didn't know who we were. That was tough. But his grandpa was very happy we were there. Laci sang for him. The memory unit has a pet dog and Calvin was pretty happy playing with her. The highlight was getting rides on his walker down the hall. I'm so glad that we are able to visit them and bring joy to him.

That evening, we went to visit his dad at rehab. It was a quick visit but I am glad we went. Laci loved seeing Grandpa and Grandpa loved seeing the kids.

Saturday - Christmas 1. We woke up at Charlie's mom's house and had Christmas morning with his mom and aunt. After their traditional Christmas breakfast, it was present time! That afternoon, Charlie's cousin and their kids came to visit for lunch. Their daughter is Laci's age. After a few moments getting to know each other, the girls were fast friends. Lunch was snacks and appetizers and I grazed all day. I had planned to get Chick-fil-a or make dinner for a "special Christmas Eve" dinner tradition but I was so full from snacking, we all ended up eating cereal and peanut butter sandwiches. It was a special dinner alright. :) It was important to me to take the kids to Christmas Eve Church service but the 7:00 service was a little late for them and we spent most of the hour walking Calvin or entertaining Laci. But it is still an important tradition to me. My favorite line after we put Laci to bed was when she walked back to our room to ask a question. "Is it going to snow tonight?" It broke our hearts to have to say no. She insisted that it had to snow for Christmas!

Getting ready to open presents at Grandma's

He loved his new hoop

Sunday - Christmas morning was awesome. I was in heaven sitting there as wrapping paper was flying through the room and toys were opened. Some of the highlights:

- Laci saying O-M-G after opening every present.

- Laci tossing aside her new Leap Pad (her "big" gift) to play with her new $5 Ariel doll.

- Laci thanked me and hugged me after every single present she opened.

- The fact that Laci mentioned her new Princess underwear to every relative that called that day. Who knew the underwear would be such a hit!

- I loved that the first thing Laci did when we came downstairs that morning was not look at everything she got but she made Calvin open the gift she gave him. He loved it Rockin' Mickey Mouse.

- Having to take a break of opening presents to give Calvin a banana.

- Christmas breakfast - everyone got their favorite "exotic" fruit that they don't normally get in winter - Blueberries for Calvin, Pineapple for Charlie and Pears for Laci.

- Taking a family walk while Laci tried out her new bike.

- Charlie spent over an hour assembling the new rocking horse for Calvin and another half an hour putting training wheels on Laci's new bike. The joy on their faces made it all worth it!

- After the excitement of the presents, Laci chose Christmas dinner as the perfect time to throw a enormous tantrum! Charlie, Calvin and I enjoyed turkey, broccoli, mashed potatoes and homemade strawberry applesauce on the good china with sparkling cider in our wine glasses. Laci screamed and threw things under the table. At least it was memorable.

Laci is under the table screaming. Charlie looks nice. :)

Monday - Christmas 3. We drove to my sister's house for Christmas with my family. More cousins. Lots more gifts and presents. Laci had a big sleepover with her cousins that night. She loved it. We came home yesterday through snow. I freaked out a bit but we all made it home fine. Laci loved playing in the 1" of snow. The next task on my list - finding places for all the new toys and putting away new clothes.

I am really looking forward to the 4 day weekend coming up. I love that we have no where to go and no where to be but just to have fun and be together.